Dear Americans, Please Consider this July 4th Plea: “The Only Condition Necessary for Evil to Continue is When Good People Do Nothing”
Letter from the Port Isabel Detention Center, Port Isabel, Texas
On this July 4th, 2020, my thoughts fall to the innocent un-free: the tens of thousands who came to the USA in search of safety and succor — like my ancestors, like yours — only to find themselves shackled, handcuffed, and thrown behind bars for the “crime” of exercising their international right to asylum.
This letter from the Port Isabel Detention Center in Texas is by a young husband and father from an African nation who has been separated from his family and incarcerated for over eight months in the “Land of the Free.” His jailers refuse to let him go, even in the midst of a deadly global pandemic.
He and his fellow asylum seekers request your help.
Dear US Taxpayers,
Did you know? Your hard-earned dollars are being used to fund the torture of asylum seekers. I know, because I am one of them.
I am writing to let you know that the US is now leading the world in its cruel and inhumane treatment of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees, in violation of both domestic and international laws.
I write to you from an ICE prison now, to let you know that what they are doing to us migrants and refugees is equivalent to torture.
We are not criminals. But your government, under the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), has jailed us, systematically stripped us of our dignity, humanity, identity, and our individuality, and exposed us to the coronavirus.
The USA is supposed to be an example to the world, but ICE is acting in gross violation of both international and constitutional rights of refugees, including protection from cruel and inhumane treatment. Even Iran released about 85,000 prisoners because of the coronavirus pandemic. By continuing to imprison us, the USA is leading the world in human torture.
Many migrant advocates agree: ICE should not exist in the 21st century, because of its gross human rights violations. Through ICE, the US is now doing what Australia did to asylum seekers at their offshore torture center in Manus Island.
The conditions at the Port Isabel Detention Center can only be described as horrific and heartbreaking. WE HAVE NO HAND SANITIZER AND WE ARE HELD IN CROWDED DORMS OF 70 PEOPLE WHERE SOCIAL DISTANCING IS IMPOSSIBLE. ICE IS EVEN VIOLATING TEXAS STATE LAW.
My dorm has been on quarantine since June 9, 2020, because of the coronavirus outbreak among detainees, and we keep having new cases. The officers only attend to us from outside the dorm, entering occasionally for counts, like a farmer counts his sheep before slaughter, thereby leaving us to wallow with the virus.
If what ICE and DHS are doing to us refugees was happening in any other country, the USA would be the first to criticize. Yet ICE prefers to use US taxpayers’ money to subject human beings innocent of any real crime to cruel and inhumane treatment.
Why are they hurting the less privileged? Is it misplaced patriotism? Is it a form of pride? Does it help them alleviate their own insecurities?
If you are a US taxpayer, you need to know: ICE is using your hard-earned money to fund the unlawful confinement, physical restraint, and exposure of refugees to the deadly coronavirus. You are thus participating in the torture of humans against US and international laws.
Most of us imprisoned here with me regret the pain and injustice that humans were subjected to by the Nazis and the slave masters, but this is the epitome of cruelty in the 21st century. And it is being committed by ICE in your name.
Why such meanness? We are human beings too.
The world is facing the coronavirus pandemic with no vaccine or cure. But ICE, which is unable to handle common outbreaks, like measles, in its numerous torture centers throughout the country, is refusing to release those of us who have the legal right to be with our families and sponsors, while continuing with our immigration proceedings. Some detainees are losing their loved ones at home, without the opportunity to say goodbye in their last moments on earth, because they are in ICE captivity.
ICE’s long-term detention of asylum seekers, forcing us to live in horrific conditions even though we do not pose a threat to safety or risk of flight, violates “Due Process.” No specific justification exists that outweighs our constitutionally protected right to freedom of physical restraint without cause. To do this in the midst of the coronavirus is unconstitutional and can only be motivated by hatred.
We need your help. There is no room for meanness or narrow mindedness by those in authority right now. Our lives are at stake. If we are to win the war against the twin pandemics of evil and coronavirus, we must do it together.
I suggest that a “writ of habeas corpus” be filed with the federal district court which has jurisdiction over Port Isabel Detention Center, in order to challenge our detention.
I ask that you please call your congressional representatives. Please also call the heads of ICE and DHS. Demand that ICE release all detainees from confinement. Demand that they #FreeThemAll.
ICE should know that they are not exempted from the coronavirus. Some of their employees have been infected too. On Friday June 26, 2020 a Security Officer in Port Isabel died of the coronavirus, and only God knows the number of detainees who have been infected by ICE officers. I believe ICE would have been happy if the virus was infecting only detainees, but the virus does not discriminate.
As the virus continues to spread throughout the Port Isabel Detention Center, it will spill over into the local community. This will further strain the limited resources of the local hospitals, thereby endangering the lives of local residents. The short-sighted cruelty of ICE will lead, therefore, to a major uncontrollable coronavirus outbreak in the local community.
US citizens and residents, please fight for the release of innocent asylum seekers from this illegal captivity. Using your money to pay for the expense of punishing us is not in the public interest!
And for what? Most of us have been found to have a credible fear of persecution or torture in our home countries. There is thus a high probability of our finding relief and being freed under US and international law. It is wrong to keep us in bondage at your expense and the expense of the local population.
ICE should announce to the entire world that the US is no longer a party to the international treaty to protect human rights.
THEY ARE SUBJECTING US REFUGEES TO CRUEL AND INHUMANE TREATMENT.
The United States is struggling to make restitution for slavery and decades of racial injustice against their own population, yet ICE is working very hard to torture migrants and refugees. They will be forced to apologize for this cruel treatment one day.
Please be on the right side of history today.
As you read this, know that words can never fully express the pains we refugees are going through right now. Being exposed to the coronavirus by our captor, ICE, is just one injustice. We are humans. We need to be with our love ones during this pandemic, but ICE is acting against the principle of the sanctity of human life.
You can make a difference by sharing this message as widely as you can, and doing whatever you can to stop this evil perpetuated on innocent refugees.
THE ONLY CONDITION NECESSARY FOR EVIL TO CONTINUE IS WHEN GOOD PEOPLE DO NOTHING. THERE IS NO NOBLER CAUSE THAN TO GET JUSTICE FOR THOSE WHO DESERVE IT.
THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR US TO MAKE A MEANINGFUL IMPACT IN COMBATING EVIL.
Sarah Towle is a peace educator and SEL consultant, human rights activist, and the author of THE FIRST SOLUTION: Tales of Humanity and Heroism from the US Border Crisis, rolling out on Medium as fast as she can write it because the issue is Just. That. Urgent. yet rendered invisible by the COVID-19 and US Constitutional crises.